Present day print shops utilize laser printers to print the pages of a book or job on a continuous paperweb that is typically wider than needed for the printed pages. Printers are generally set up to print successive pages in side-by-side relationship on the relatively wide paperweb. The web is then slit into at least two side-by-side web ribbons that ideally are then collectively crosscut after the web segments or ribbons are arranged in registry one above the other. However, accurate registration or merger of the side-by-side web ribbons has been facilitated heretofore by the tractor fed perforated paperweb. More particularly, by feeding the slit web segments with the tractor drive engaging only one marginal side of the web segments, those segments were successfully merged and fed into a rotary cutter so the pages can be simultaneously cross-cut from the web ribbons.
Present day laser print shops utilize the pinless (non-tractor) paper roll now available and no longer require the perforated paperweb used with such tractor drives. There is a corresponding need for a pinless paper merger system for accurately indexing the web ribbons one on top of another in order that a rotary cutter can sever the web ribbons such that the printed matter is presented on individual successive pages.